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Page 444
fied. The first time, Simon grew near frantic. He hung over me and asked me every other moment whether I ailed and what troubled me. I thought he was run mad, until he finally spoke out and told me I was so complaisant he thought I was growing too weak to argue."
"It is plain enough that you are not in the last stages of breeding nor in any way enfeebled. What then must your poor husband feel when he knows you so well and you behave in such a way? He rages at you, and you return sweet replies. He knows you are only polite to people you hate or do not know. Do you wonder all your kindness is making him miserably unhappy?"
"But I do not feel like quarreling with Ian," Alinor wailed.
"Who cares what you feel? You have hurt him enough to do what will content him, without regard to your own desires. Moreover, if you continue as you are going, you will drive him to make real this dreamif there is such a thing, which I am more and more sure you have made up out of signs that could mean anything. More likely, you will drive him to seek a woman who will quarrel with him when he desires it. Remember what you yourself told me made Berengaria useless to Richardshe would not be a safe butt for his rage. Do you know where Ian was going when he left here?"
"Yes, of course."
"Well, recall him. And when he comes, tell him you do not like the way his nose sits on his face. Tell him his feet are too big. Tell him anything so long as it will make him angry."
Although Alinor's eyes lit at Isobel's suggestion, she shook her head. "No, I cannot do that. He has gone to settle some dispute on his northern lands. I cannot call him away from a serious business. But I do not think the matter will keep him long. He will doubtless return to see how you do and to see me back to Roselynde."
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